10 years

This past year I have joined a women's Bible study, which has been a HUGE blessing in my life, I can't even begin to tell you. 2 months ago, at one of our meetings, one of the women asked the question:

"Where do you hope to be in 10 years?" 

Most of the ladies got a smile on their face and shared their hopes for their spouse, children, and aspiration for their careers. They went around the circle and I became more and more nervous as they got closer to me.

Where DO I want to be in 10 years? I'm not even sure where I'm going to be in 1 year! I mean, no one really knows the plan for their life. Clearly, God has our lives planned according to His will, but most of the women could give a rough estimate of what their life may be like.

Me? Not even a clue. What was my answer, you ask? It was a nervous sputter, something along the lines of, "I guess it would be nice to married!" I revert to humor when I get a bit flustered.

This question and some events in the past few weeks have really gotten me thinking about my future. I have absolutely no idea what is in store for me or where my life may be heading. This is equally terrifying and invigorating!

I have been a nervous wreck the past few weeks, dealing with things to do with the next year of my life. My fingers are chewed to bits...a terrible nervous habit of mine! Sorry, gross confession! The past few days, however, have been a reassurance for me about how phenomenal God truly is. He has shown to me His love and care for me through various means, be it a text from a friend, a sermon that was a spot on message, a phone call of amazing encouragement from another friend, and kind words from coworkers.

I share all this because I can feel God working in me, changing me, and pushing me to be better, to trust Him, and to not be scared of what the future holds, because He is holding it! I cannot tell you how fantastic I feel today, as if a weight has been lifted. Am I still a bit scared/nervous about change? Absolutely. I'm working on it though, with Christ right by my side.

So I am not worrying about 10 years from now. I am working on lesson plans for this week, hanging out with my roommate, and enjoying the beautiful sunset in the sky, placed there by our amazing God! 

Miss Ongna, the Hippo Hunter

Can I take a moment to brag a little? I have been bragging to my fellow teachers and my roommate, so why not just keep it going a bit and brag to you too!

My students finished up their 5 paragraph "essays" on Friday! 5 paragraphs! With indentation, proper punctuation, and introductory and concluding paragraphs. As they were writing and I was helping them edit, I was geeking out. I'm pretty sure they thought I was having a spazz attack because all I could keep saying was, "I am so excited!! You are doing so well! This is awesome!" There may have also been some excited hand motions in there...

The wonderful essays my students wrote!

I have worked on hitting writing hard this year because I think it is a completed neglected skill in today's world. 2nd grade is such a wonderful year because kids are just starting to be able to work on their own and are making that transition from learning to read to reading to learn. I look for ways to include a writing project in each of my subject areas.
My students this year have surprised me at how they have taken a project I have had in mind and done it 10 times better than I was anticipating, such as the essays! It is fun to get to see students develop through the year and go from barely being able to write 1 paragraph to writing multiple. I would also like to add on that these students' abilities to write so well comes not from me being a great teacher, but from them having a wonderful God-given gift to learn and show what they have learned in a most marvelous way! I am in no way bragging about my own abilities, only about my students'!

We have not only done more structured writing in school, but have done some fun writing times as well. I have this wonderful book that has the beginning of a silly story and the students need to finish it. My students love them and break out into cheers when I hand one out. The kids can spend 10 minutes writing and fill up the front and back of the paper. No complaints about that here! Here is a story one of my students wrote that even included me as a character. I guess that's the risk you run teaching young students...being included in a story as a hippo hunter! I think that may actually be illegal in real life...

Either way, this story started out with a boy and his family having problems with hippopotamuses in their house and the students takes it from there:

"One day a girl named Miss Ongna rang the doorbell. She said, "I'm here to destroy or get rid of that hippopotamus!" She went to the trap and took out some bait for it. Then snap! She was in the hippo's tummy. She went bang bang with her fists and gum trapped her. "No!" said Kirk. So Kirk got a fishing rod and for Miss Ongna out. The hippos then said goodbye and Miss Ongna was homeless, so she lived with the 2nd graders and they lived happily ever after! The End."